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Fishing~; prp Nate
Topic Started: Jul 3 2013, 08:32 PM (104 Views)
Billy
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Alpha dog.
It's inconvenient for them to meet. This being the only two days off work she had to drop into Blue ridge and make sure everything was going well. But it's also.. the only two days she has off of work for the next couple of weeks. And although it is horribly timed Billy fits him nice and neatly into her schedule. Their phone call is brief, to the point, and friendly. He'll be staying with her a majority of the time to check Blue Ridge out. And although she's not exactly fond of Las Vegas being so privy to Blue ridges usual circling of the drain -- she's relieved she's got the company. Sabra having to stay behind with Caden and this being something she'd never admit, or want to expose to Vianne.

Five years under her control, there were still rebels here, entirely against the regime. She knew they existed, but couldn't sniff them out. It always made her cautious.

They meet at a Denny's, and it's so entirely unprofessional and laughable, but it's them. The private sort of humor she didn't get to express with any other political wish wash. The fact of the matter being she liked and trusted Nate. She could relax around him, and that made business much more like a visit.

Billy's just got done ordering a healthy dose of pancakes, bacon, and orange juice when she waves him down from the entrance. "My treat," she says, a proud smile on her face at the offer of information. He'd suggested implementing a financial structure to help Blackwater maintain their money and it'd worked wonderfully. "It's the least I could do for you."

And kicking back in the booth, she's a little more radiant than normal when she checks her cellphone, and shoots him a private text.

"Did you see that giant mole on her nose?" It says.
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Nate
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Newborn
Nathan isn’t sure of the moment Billy had burrowed her way into his life so irreversibly, all tooth and claw and puckish laughter, but the girl and her pack have proven in an impossibly short span of time that they are here to stay. Honest and deep friendship is not a thing that has ever come easily to him, not with its responsibility and demands of long-term commitment; he is in possession of countless acquaintances, and the skin-deep associations he fosters in most of his bedmates and drinking partners are simple enough, but rarely does he allow an individual to slip past that barricade.

Billy has done so, and Nathan would be worried over that if she didn’t keep him endlessly entertained. Where closeness often reads of danger – and where the Blackwater alpha is threatening enough in her own right, no matter her sense of humor and quick smile – with Billy he has always abandoned formality, discarded the pomp and circumstance of pack and Vegas and Nathaniel in the span of time it takes to kick off his shoes and share a beer on her porch. This time is no different, driving out in his rented corvette to meet her at a Denny’s in the middle of the boondocks of her goddamned pack territory.

Anyone else would have an irritated and powerful werewolf on their hands, but Billy is only on the receiving end of a smile and a playful roll of his eyes. Nate shrugs off a light jacket as he crosses the restaurant, tossing it to the corner of the booth before sitting.

”Miss Moneybags, huh?” The look Nate gives her is humoring, laced with a bit of laughter – he is well aware that he is the reason her finances have gone from red to black. ”Been a long time since I let a lady take me out. Hope I’m worth it.” He waves the waitress down, orders himself a stack of pancakes, and takes to nursing a hastily delivered coffee while regarding the woman across the table. Her phone chirps, and she will find him smiling from above the rim of his mug as she reads the reply: Mole? I thought it was a planet.

Nathan is here, as usual and all friendships and jokes aside, to check in on pack investments. His ties to Chicago are flimsy, but it had been by his word that they had lent her their aid – and that makes Blackwater his problem. Vegas and Chicago both would have his head if their investment came out a loss.

If Las Vegas and Chicago even exist when this whole thing is through. Their usual meeting is, in fact, anything but.

”You been watching the news lately?” An unlikely lead, but Nathan’s concern over this situation is making him more cautious than normal, his approach uncertain. ”People are dying.” She might not know all of them, but the names are becoming more familiar – more important.

”Our people.”

Or, more succinctly: wolves.
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Billy
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Alpha dog.
Billy has always enjoyed Nathan. They'd met years ago -- back when she'd been so blue-blooded Blue Ridge had yet to deem her a threat. And he'd caught something interesting in her. He'd heard her out and fought her case. She hadnt thought being at the right place at the right time and being friendly would get her anywhere with werewolves. Yet, had she not have met the aristocratic man and smiled at him Blackwater might not exist so openly. And she may not exist at all.

In the blond's eyes there are debts upon debts she owes. To Giles for saving her, to Beau for protecting her, to Sabra -- to Vianne -- but with Nathan she doesn't feel so pressured. She can preen her feathers a bit, kick back her feet and lean on the edges of the chair. It's a unexpected breath of fresh air. One that has taken years to establish and familiarity to maintain.

There are some things Nathan knows about that Sabra had never caught wind of.

Billy smiles at him, all teeth and dimples. "Better be," she says all playful and jest and makes some playful notion with her spoon when she follows up. "Long as y' know your soup spoon from your regular spoon. But I spose all ya'll city folk know that huh?"

And the Blackwater alpha sneaks a look at her phone and inconspicuously puts her hand in front of her mouth to hide her sense of humor. Trying to look good and proper when said Waitress makes her way back around. She has always been a fickle woman, a gossiper -- even in highschool back when she was a little more cruel -- she'd gotten a good laugh out of people's insecurities. Not much had changed about how shallow she could be. It just mattered with the people she surrounded herself with. Girls will be girls after-all.

But something shifts and the air, and where Billy doesn't quite entirely make sense of it, her wolf is suddenly ramrod alert. "Been real busy." she doesn't say rather it was with werewolves or just her job. But she seems visibly alarmed when Nate continues on. Catching the undertones before further explanation is needed. Had it been human deaths on the rise she would have been informed. But this skip in her lead makes her uncomfortable and fidgety. Her lack of knowledge a downplay to her information. Although Blackwater had always been her main source of concern ,(and seldom the ''outside'' world), she'd learned long ago knowing all kept you safe and got you places. It was her job to stay aware, and in return, keep those under her tutelage aware ergo alive. And this ignorance makes her uncomfortable enough she's posturing.

And Nathan or not she's quiet for a moment considering him before she resolves her internal conflict. There were times to be prideful and times to throw in the towel. And if this could affect her pack and family, Nathan was a trustworthy source. That he'd proven.

"Like who?" She says, wonders if this is why their meeting was so urgent. "What's happenin?" She's got Sabra,Lynn, and Vianne on speed-dial. And her fingers threaten to press the buttons before he might even begin.
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Nate
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Newborn
The front Nate presents to Blackwater is a far cry from the rigid and ruthlessly effective businessman he has been honed to in Las Vegas. It is no less honest, but in same ways it is easier – less learned, less strict – and the man has grown fond of the time he’s able to spend in the sprawling southern territory. It takes different kind of expertise to navigate the backwoods pack’s dangers, one that revolves less around performing as a well-oiled cog in a vast machine and is instead attuned to the unpredictability of, say, barroom brawls. It’s a knife to the back versus a chair to the skull, but Nate’s grown an appreciation for the latter.

It’s why talking matters of business has rarely seemed to suit him and Billy, even in the days when he’d crunched numbers and corrected tax forms from the comfort of her front porch, a beer in hand and a pizza between them. From the start they had existed more as kindred spirits and old friends than business partners, more liable to discuss policy over the screaming of a horror flick than politely prattle over an expensive meal. It’s why they are meeting in the fluorescent-lit booth of a Denny’s, and why Nate hesitates before deciding how to navigate the news he bears.

Concern is an infrequent and worrying emotion, but recent events have been painting an increasingly clear picture, and the man has more roots in Tennessee earth than he would have thought possible.

”Important people.” Blue eyes slide away evasively, and the playful banter of their text conversation is forgotten. About them, the din of the diner does not falter, disguising their words with the blessed white noise of self-absorption. ”Pack people. Enough that folks who matter are starting to get suspicious. And worried.” Vegas’ beta had succumbed most recently, and word on the street writes the same grim story for packs across the country: wolves are dying, and the cause is undefined. The cities had been hit hardest thanks to sheer numbers, but Nate is certain Blackwater hasn’t been spared the blow. That Billy seems confused only reinforces how important it is for this meeting to happen – that they can be isolated here, blissfully ignorant and woefully in danger.

”There’s not a lot of wolves in Blackwater, Bills,” few enough that any losses would hurt, and maybe that’s why he’s here, maybe the thought of shattering these small and previously uncharted friendships is terrifying, ”But you haven’t heard of anything? No one’s… gone missing?”

No more than usual, at least.
The mask of protecting pack assets only goes so far when Vegas is turning teeth on their own and these fledgling relationships he’s built are at risk. Sure some measure of that worry seeps through in his voice, in the way he watches the unlikely alpha with that honesty in his eyes. Nate’s thumb circles the rim of his mug and in that simple act the atmosphere evaporates, discarded in a shrug and replaced with that damnable casualness he can’t quite shake.

”Vegas is getting dangerous for us.” It had never been particularly kind to wolves, overrun as it is with fae and in the grip of centuries-old bloodsuckers, but the chaos in the pack has destabilized the supernatural community’s iron grip. ”—For me. The pack politics are going to be,” and Nate pauses, drinking slow from his coffee as their waitress appears to drop off their meals, ”…complicated.”

The sort of complicated that makes holing up in the mountains for a weekend seem like a welcome vacation.
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